AUMÔNIER/AUMÔNERIE
. The Latin title elemosinarius, from which the Old French almosn(i)er or aumosnier and
its English equivalent, “almoner,” are derived, was applied from an early date to the
official of a religious house who was charged with the distribution of alms (almosnes,
aumoesnes, derived through Latin from Greek eleemosune ‘compassion, charitable gift’).
By the 14th century, a similar officer, normally a cleric of some sort, had come to be
attached to the households of many princes and prelates, where he often functioned as a
sort of chaplain as well. Great princes sometimes maintained a whole corps of almoners,
who together formed a department of their household or chapel called the aumosnerie. In
the household of the king of France, this department was called the grande aumosnerie
de France, and its chief officer, who was normally a prelate, bore the title grand
aumosnier de France.
D’A.Jonathan D.Boulton
AURAY
. The town of Auray (Morbihan) was the site of a battle, fought on September 29, 1364,
that brought an end to a war of succession in the duchy of Brittany that had lasted for
twenty-three years and established as duke Jean IV of the Montfort family. The opposing
claimant, Charles de Blois, had French support, and his army contained the celebrated
Bertrand du Guesclin and most of the great lords of Brittany. Jean de Montfort could
count on only one major Breton lord, Olivier de Clisson, but he had with him three
renowned English captains—John Chandos, Hugh Calverly, and Robert Knolles.
While Montfort’s forces besieged Auray, his enemies attacked in an effort to raise the
siege, but they met with overwhelming defeat, as Charles was killed and Du Guesclin
captured. Chandos and his compatriots are credited with the decisive role in the victory,
while Clisson, who lost an eye in the battle, won his reputation as a courageous warrior.
Auray has only one building with vestiges of its medieval past, the former Chapel of
the Holy Spirit. Although radically transformed into a military hospital after 1831,
fragments of the late 13th-century window tracery and other elements of the chapel are
still visible. Most remarkably, the late 13th- or early 14th-century oak roof is still intact.
John Bell Henneman, Jr.
[See also: BRITTANY; CHARLES DE BLOIS; GUESCLIN, BERTRAND DU;
JEAN IV]
La Borderie, Arthur de. Histoire de Bretagne. Rennes: Vatar, 1899, Vol. 3.
Luce, Siméon. Histoire de Bertrand du Guesclin et de son époque...1320–1364. Paris: Hachette,
1876.
Mouton, Benjamin. “Auray: Chapelle du Saint-Esprit.” Congrès archéologique (Morbihan)
141(1983):28–33.
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